Shipping Vastly Benefited Assembly Bill number 408, Chapter 221 of the Laws of the State of New Jersey, A.D. 1925, will benefit the warehousemen of New Jersey to the extent of a few thousand dollars every year, but it will benefit the shipping interests of that State to the extent of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, because it will be the means of providing and assembling cargoes for ships. Without such a bill, successful cargo-assembly would be impossible. Herein the benefits pass far beyond the confines of New Jersey itself.

bor.

They extend immediately and at once to the ship operators of New York Harbor, who will be given opportunities for bottom loading without leaving New York HarThe bill will benefit all railroads entering the Metropolitan District (from the west and south particularly) because it will obviate the necessity of hauling much of the heavier kinds of cargo destined for export and coastwise through the congested sections of Manhattan Island. Other Interests Benefited

The bill will benefit the cotton and wool growers of the south and west who will be able to bring their product coastwise to Newark Bay and there store it in readiness for spot delivery and/or broken lot shipment to Europe, coastwise or to eastern mills.

It will benefit the bankers of New York City and New

ark by providing in large mass that most desirable of all securities for bank loans a staple commodity, covered by warehouse receipt and policy of insurance and stored within 4 Ominutes travel from Broadway and Wall Street.

As to Newark, particularly, the bill opens the door to the addition of a new kind of prosperity over and above the purely manufacturing prosperity that has made Newark, for its area, the most remarkable industrial city in America. Of course I mean the New York and London brand of money-making, where vast populations are maintained by reason of services performed for outsiders in the distribution, financing and sale on commission of commodities produced beyond London or New York's own borders.

Well, two out of these three troubles are over,-finished, done,-"PAU", as they say in Hawaii.

As to the third, that also is practically all over but the actual "signing on the dotted line" by Secretary Mellon. It has been recommended by Mr. Elting, the Collector of Customs at New York, and Mr. E. W. Camp, Director of Customs in Washington, D. C. It is so obviously simple and just and the thing has gone too far to slide back again.

Thus it will be seen that "imponderables" do carry some weight after all, even if not amenable to the fulcrum of a Fairbanks' scale.

The largest sailing vessel in the world was recently berthed at the West India Docks, London, to be unloaded of a cargo of some thousands of tons of South African maize. This is the Kopenhava, belonging to the East Asi atic Company, of Copenhagen. The vessel was built by a Leith firm in 1921, and is fitted with auxiliary motor power. One of the ship's five masts is 182 feet from the deck. Part of the crew's complement consists of 42 cadets, who are being trained for the Danish Merchant. Service.

Preparing For Fall Marine Exhibition

P. A. Sensenig, Chairman of the Exhibits Committee of the American Marine Association, recently stated that practically one-half of the booth space for the Great Ma

rine Exposition to be held November 9th to 14th in the 212th Anti-Aircraft Regiment Armory, New York, has been sold and that inquiries for preferred space for what promises to be the most successful marine show ever held on the Atlantic seaboard indicate a widespread interest among shipping men throughout the country in the most popular maritime event of the year.

Mr. Sensenig declared that the receipt of so many contracts in less than three weeks from the time definite

plans were made public, has broken all previous records, and that he feels confident in predicting that practically all of the remaining space exempted for exhibitors at the great marine show in November will be taken when the Spring banquet is held on May 7th. He considers this showing all the more remarkable in view of the fact that the general advertising campaign, plans for which are now being formulated, will not get definitely under way until the first of March, and he directed attention to the fact that the real space selling campaign would not be in full swing until that time. "Together with other members of the Exhibits Committee, I have talked with shipsenig, "and we have discovered a great deal of genuine ping men from all parts of the country," said Mr. Senful leaders in our industry see an unusual opportunity for enthusiasm for the Marine Exposition. Many thoughtthe shipbuilding, ship owners and operators of American auxiliary equipment, to demonstrate to the American pubtonnage, as well as those who supply propelling and lic and to official Washington that the Navy and merchant marine can be made far more efficient in ability to cope with the competition of the times, through the installation of modern machinery and auxiliaries. There is also a general feeling in shipping circles that the time is ripe for united action by all who have the interests of the industry at heart.

It is recognized everywhere throughout the shipping world that the Marine Exposition offers an exceptional medium for stimulating public interest and for gaining well-deserved national support to the end that our great maritime engineering organizations may remain in a condition to function efficiently in time of emergency and to assist actively in building up the nation's commercial enterprise in times of peace.'

In addition to offering an exceptional opportunity to all branches of the marine industry to exploit effectively the immediate sale of modern equipment and supplies, the Marine Exhibition of 1925 will serve as a rallying point for all those who believe that the best interest of a great and vital industry can be best served through united action.

The following firms have already contracted for space and are now busily engaged with plans to make their exhibits in November mark a new milestone on the road to prosperity and success:

Ajax Rope Company, Waterbury Tool Works, Babcock &Wilcox Company, Fairbanks, Morse Co., Simmons Boardman Publishing Co., Penton Publishing Co., Pacific Marine Review, Todd Shipyards Corp., National Malleable & Steel Castings Co., Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co., Akimoff Propeller Co., Asbestolith Company, Pneumercator Company, Nautical Gazette, Coen Company, B. F. Sturtevant Co., Diehl Mfg. Company, Diamond Power Specialty Co., The Marine Journal, Motor Ship Pub. Co., Power Specialty Co., Foster Marine Boiler Co., The Texas Co., Sperry Gyroscope Co., Hyde Windless Co., Edison Electric Appliance Co., General Electric Company, Griscom-Russell Co., Worthington Pump & Machinery Co., Propeller Club, C. H. Wheeler Mfg. Co., John A. Hense, Walter Kidde & Co., DeLaval Separator Co.

Student Tours Three student tours will be conducted by the United States Lines this season, which promise to appeal greatly to students from the colleges and universities all over the country, whose vacations will begin the end of June.

The first tour, which will leave New York on the

Leviathan on July 4, will be in charge of Dr. Frank Graham, professor of economics at Princeton. Professor ham, professor of economics at Princeton. Professor Graham is exceptionally popular with Princeton students, because of his knowledge of foreign languages and his experience in European travel. He should prove an ideal escort for a trip of this nature. He will be assisted in his work by Mrs. Graham. The European end of this tour will start at Cherbourg and will include a day in Paris, a trip to Versailles, a side tour to the battlefields of France; a half-day in Geneva, visits to Montreux, Genoa and Rome. Sightseeing in Florence, Venice, trips to Lugano by way of Milan, a visit to Interlaken, with an excursion to Jungfrau. There will also be a day in Berne, Switzerland, and a day for sightseeing in Paris before the return to Cherbourg, with embarkation for New York on the Leviathan on August 4. The total cost of this student tour will be $456, complete bookings for which may be made through the United States Lines, or through Cook

& Sons.

The second of the big student tours will be conducted by Professor Robert Herling of Princeton. He will be assisted by Mrs. Herling. Professor Herling is also exceptionally well equipped because of his knowledge of European languages and European countries, to conduct this tour. This tour, to cost $586, will leave New York July 8 on board the George Washington. The party will arrive in Cherbourg on the 16th of July. The tour for students will include a visit to Paris, a trip to Geneva, Montreux, Genoa and Rome, as well as to Naples, Florence and Venice in Italy. There will also be side trips to Interlaken and Zurick in Switzerland, while the German excursions will be made to Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Maintz and Cologne. The party will then visit Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam in Holland, with return by way of London and Southampton, sailing from Southampton on board the President Harding on August 20th and arriving in New York on August 27th.

The St. Lawrence "Seaway"

The United States and Canadian governments have come to an agreement on the terms of the engineering reference under which another joint survey of the St. Lawrence ship canal will be made. The latest exchange of notes between Washington and Ottawa, concluding the agreement, will be published simulaneously in both capitols in the near future.

Work on the survey already is under way, but that being done relates to studies in reference to which previous agreements had been reached. With a complete understanding arrived at it is believed the survey can be completed by next fall provided Congress now provides the funds necessary to care for the American share of the expense. The Canadians already have spent more than the United States.

The $275,000 item in the rivers and harbors bill for the St. Lawrence survey, it is believed by supporters of the waterway, was allowed to stand by the Senate and House. Chairman Dempsey of the House Rivers and Harbors Committee was not disposed to make a fight over it, because to do so might endanger the bill and he is too deeply interested in the deeper Hudson to risk that.

Hearings which the United States St. Lawrence Commission was scheduled to hold have been delayed pending conclusion of the agreement over instructions to en

gineers and the passage of the fiscal item to defray the expenses.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Tidewater Association

recently declared that the Dempsey plan for a survey for a ship canal across New York State, the so-called all-American plan, is not in aid of the West but merely designed to obviate the St. Lawrence. The New Yorkers declare, however, that with surveys on the St. Lawrence and New York propositions before it, it will be easy for Congress to pick the best route.

Ford's Ship Fixed

The Ford Motor Company's steamer Onondaga finally has been fixed to the South Alberta Lumber Company for a full cargo of lumber from British Columbia to North of Hatteras at an undisclosed rate, after a hectic career in the charter market, according to infor mation received from San Francisco. The vessel was placed in the hands of a number of shipping companies who were all working there at the same time, and when the lumber charter was announced it had been agreed that she was to go on the berth San Francisco for Norfolk and Philadelphia. This conflict apparently has been adjusted, however.

Todd Plant Will Recondition Tanker

William Boyce Thompson

destroyed by fire at Linden, N. J., last November and The oil tanker Il'illiam Boyce Thompson, which was was apparently a hopeless mass of iron and steel, was poration recently by a fleet of tugs to be almost comtowed to the Robins plant of the Todd Shipyards Corpletely rebuilt. This is to be one of the largest jobs of renovation ever undertaken by an American shipyard.

Practically every one of the plates, warped and weakenline, will have to be taken out and replaced before the ed by the heat from the blaze of 50,000 barrels of gasovessel is restored to its service in bringing oil from Mexican ports to New York.

The task of taking the tanker from the river bottom at Linden, where she was sunk in an effort to put out the fire, was extremely difficult.

On November 16 the blaze which destroyed the Willim Boyce Thompson started on a barge alongside the tanker. This soon spread to the larger vessel. Efforts of the fire-fighters were useless and in a few hours she was completely aflame. Her gasoline compartments burned for day after day as one after another yielded to the great heat. The last consignment blew up ten days after the fire started.

Port Authority Reports Progress

Julian A. Gregory, chairman of the Port of New York Authority, upon his return from Albany on March 27th issued a statement expressing gratification with the progress made toward bringing about "better and more efficient connections" between the States of New York and New Jersey. Mr. Gregory said:

"The Port Authority is gratified with the expressions of confidence which by their acts the Congress of the United States and the Governors and Legislatures of the two States have this year reposed in it. The passage of the Wadsworth-Mills Hoboken Shore Line bill by the Congress, the Larsen bill in New Jersey, and the MastickDavison Staten Island bridge finance bill in New York, the Mackay Fort Lee bridge bill in New Jersey and the Grenthal bill in New York all indicate that the Port Authority's powers are being appreciated and should be employed in bringing about better and more efficient connections between the two States.

"The friends of parks need have no apprehension that these powers will be used to the injury of parks in New York City. Fort Washington Park is owned by the city. We have no power to locate in the park without the consent of the city authorities, and our plans for approaches must not only be approved by the city, but by the Governor as well. No public agency can be so blind as to fail to realize that a bridge across the Hudson must not only satisfy the needs of commerce, but must be so designed and located as to enhance the beauty and the grandeur of this majestic river. The value of a beautiful structure and approaches is incalculable.

"The public need have no fear that the Port Authority will fail always to keep this in mind, for we shall take pains to call to our aid the counsel and advice of men and women whose sense of civic pride and keen appreciation of civic beauty will be a guarantee, if they indorse our plans, that we have met that point of view. We are committed as yet to nothing except a bridge, in all respects fitting and suitable, across the Hudson, It should add to access to the 'great outdoors' of which the park movement is an important part."

President To Pass On Inclusion of
Newark In Port

A Washington dispatch on March 30 stated that the customs division of the Treasury expects to submit to President Coolidge this week a proposed executive order, extending the limits of the Port of New York to include the subports of Newark and Perth Amboy. It is planned to make the change so as to leave intact all the advantages that now accrue to Newark and Amboy as subports and to obviate the present practice whereby a ship now has to go through all the formalities of clearance to go from the port of New York to the port of Newark.

The executive order will be based upon the terms of the treaty between New Jersey and New York and approved by the Congress, setting up the New York Port Authority. It will provide that after April 15, the limits of the port of New York shall be extended to include the New Jersey area, as defined in the compact of the states. It is the conviction of the customs division that this will be effective in eliminating technical ship clearances, extra marine insurance and other items, and at the same time Newark and Amboy will continue to possess the privileges of a port of entry.

British "View With Alarm” The Liverpool Journal of Commerce is quoted in the Herald-Tribune of New York, as saying:

"As the avowed intention of the United States scheme for converting the majority of the Shipping Board steamers into motorships is to capture a considerable part of our carrying trade, it is only natural that British shipowners, and especially the owners of tramp tonnage, should keep a very close eye on the progress of affairs. For, although they are quite confident that they can hold their own without difficulty, yet it would never do to take too much for granted and so let our rivals walks into an easy victory. Owners Resentful

The Herald-Tribune comments thusly: "The journal comments on the objections of the shipbuilders to piecemeal contracts by the board, and says that such a policy might easily result in fitting the wrong engines into hulls, or in coupling the wrong auxiliaries with the engines. The observation is also made that there is a growing opposition to the whole scheme from the private shipowners under the Star and Stripes, who maintain that as they had to buy Shipping Board steamers at a very high price and since then they have had to compete with opposition actively aided by their own government, they think that it is very unfair that they should have the added handicap of having to fight ships equipped with Diesel engines for the express purpose of making them economical. "They are not at all satisfied that the United States government intends to take adequate steps to prevent these converted Diesel ships from competing with American private owners as much as European.'

Montreal's Export Grain Record

That the Port of Montreal has definitely established a new high record for the amount of grain handled there in a year was announced last month by the Harbor Commissioners, who gave the total for 1924 as 165,139,396 bushels, compared with 120,107,990 in 1923 and 155,035,$17 in 1922, the best previous year.

Grain received by water during the year totaled 112,023,275 bushels, against 74,631,578 in 1923. Receipts. by rail amounted to 28,353 cars, or 53,116,121 bushels, compared with 27,631 cars, or 56,476,412 bushels, in 1923. Deliveries from the harbor elevators during the last year totaled 159,258,168 bushels, against 119,940,130 in 1923, while stocks in elevators were 9,460,714 bushels.

Montreal thus completed its fourth consecutive year as the greatest grain exporting seaport in the world, and has proved beyond a doubt that the leading position taken by it in 1921, when it handled 138,453,980 bushels, against 94,173,049 handled by Galveston, the next busiest port, and 84,698,581 by New York, was due not to a chance combination of circumstances, but to Montreal's geographic position and the excellence of its facilities.

Canadian Seed Trade

The value of Canadian grown seeds exported last year exceeded $2,500,000. The Canadian supply of alsike clover now controls the world's prices. That part of Ontario just east of Manitoba is most suitable for the production of high-class clover seed, and the industry is being fostered by the Provincial Government. Certified seed potatoes are also grown in that part of the country in considerable quantities. Last year Canadian registered seed was marketed in the United States, Australia, South America, Russia and other countries in northern Europe. Seed production in British Columbia is developing into a specialized industry.

PRO

ROVISION was made in the tariff act of 1922 for a duty of 50 percent on the cost of repairs made to American ships in foreign ports, unless it were shown that such repairs were necessary to enable the ships to reach their home ports. American ships in foreign trade are unprotected against foreign competition, on which account President Alfred Gilbert Smith, of the American Steamship Owners' Association, told the members of the Propeller Club at a luncheon on March 5 that the duty on foreign repairs should be repealed. He held that the duty would tend to drive American ships out of foreign trade, although to drive American ships out of foreign trade, although he did not mention any that had withdrawn because of the duty on foreign repairs made to them. This is a somewhat novel if not a rather selfish attitude. Our shipbuilders, for example, although believing our ships in foreign trade should be protected through the tariff by discriminating duties, joined hands with the ship owners and did all in their power to help the enactment of a ship subsidy bill, although our builders are unprotected against foreign competition in the building of ships for foreign trade.

American ships in foreign trade are entitled to protection, just as builders and repairers of American ships are entitled to protection, because protection is our great national policy. The tariff did partial and tardy justice to our ship repair men by making it more expensive for American ships to be repaired abroad than at home. The only possible inference from Mr. Smith's opposition to the 50 per cent repair duty is that if it were repealed our ships would be repaired abroad. This would deprive labor in the United States of employment in repairing American ships. It would also deprive American labor of employment in the production of the materials used in ship repairs. The purpose of protection is to furnish labor to Americans. Mr. Smith's protest would seem to indicate that the purpose Congress had in view in imposing the 50 per cent duty on repairs made to our ships abroad is being accomplished-American labor is being furnished employment. Congress, therefore, having achieved. its objective is unlikely to abandon the effective method by which it has achieved it-wholly in line with American policy. It is much more likely to give protection to our ships in foreign trade that is at present denied them, but in doing so, to be consistent, it should make protection complete for our shipbuilders also by denying American registry to foreign-built vessels. This is what Mr. Smith is reported to have said on the subject of repairs to American ships in foreign countries:

A word now about repairs at foreign ports. The heavy and unjust burden that rests upon American shipowners operating foreign trade ships, namely, the 50 per cent tax upon repairs made abroad, should be removed. It is not a provision of the navigation laws, but of the tariff act of 1922, and it is a pernicious provision. If American ships were obtained any aid against foreign competition then such of us who believe in a protective tariff might be silenced, if we would be consistent, against the demands of the shipyards of our country.

But we have no such protection and the owners believe that there is no justification for continuing this tax. It is my earnest belief that the repair yards of our country will come forward and offer to make restitution by having this law repealed. Every burden that lessons the chance of American ships holding their places in the trade and increases the number of foreign ships in American trade, reduces the source and quantity of possible repairs in American yards.

Upon reflection, would it not be true that any protection given any American production, so long as protection is denied to our ships in foreign trade, has a tendency to drive American ships out of foreign carrying? That is to say, if all foreign products were permitted to enter the United States untaxed, so long as no protection is given to our ships in foreign trade, would not that be fairer for our shipowners? If the result of general free trade, such as our ships in foreign trade are subjected to would be to reduce the would not that ease the "burden" of our shipowners? cost of building, repairing and operating our ships This is only carrying Mr. Smith's argument to its logical conclusion. But to carry his argument that far would have tended to array against him, not a single branch of an American industry now protected against foreign competition, but every industry now enjoying such protection.

Pursuing his argument inexorably to its logical conclusion, should not Mr. Smith have asked that protection should be withdrawn from our vessels in domestic

carrying? But, if he did that, he might have arrayed against himself the opposition of the owners of all of our vessels engaged in domestic carrying.

It will be noted that Mr. Smith said: "If American ships were obtaining any aid against foreign competition then such of us who believe in a protective tariff might be silenced, if we would be consistent, against the demands of the shipyards of our country." American ships do receive aid through our postal laws, being paid more than foreign ships are paid for carrying our mails; and we dare say that in that single respect alone American ships enjoy as much protection as the 50 per cent tax on repairs abroad to our ships give to our home ship repair men. The inference is fair that Mr. Smith believes in a protective tariff-and yet he been more reasonable and logical if he had contented may not so believe-in which case would he not have himself with showing how unfair Congress is in rethat they be given such protection, so as thus to make fusing to protect our ships in foreign trade, and asking protection general and complete? In such case he would have been justified in pointing out the anomaly of protection being given our vessels engaged in domestic commerce, the protection extended our ship repair men, and the protection extended to American products generally, while protection is withheld from our ships in foreign trade; but, to be consistent, he should have demanded that our shipbuilders should be fully protected also by denying American registry to foreign ships.

(Continued on Page 28)